Managing food & garden waste
Almost half of the average household rubbish bag contains garden and organic food waste. When deposited in landfill this produces methane and leachate which can pollute local waterways and soil. It is easy to use the goodness from these materials to improve your soil, grow healthier vegetables etc, and improve the environment.
Food Waste
Vegetable and fruit scraps can be composted at home along with your green waste. Details on how you can do this are available here. These scraps can also be fed to a worm farm and you can find more details on worm farms at our Worm Farms page.
All food waste, including meat, fish, vegetables, processed foods etc. can be composted via the Bokashi system. Bokashi is composting using Effective Micro-organisms (EM) that work to ferment the organic material. Bokashi is a Japanese word meaning ‘fermented organic matter’. The EM are in a wheat-bran/sawdust base and sealed in a bag. The final product has a sweet/sour smell. Details on how this system works are available here.
Green Waste
Green waste can be composted at home. More information on how you can do this is available here. Alternatively you can take your waste to the following places: (it’s cheaper per volume to take your greenwaste to these sites than to dispose of it as general rubbish at the Resource Recovery Centres)
- Greenwaste to Zero Richmond
- Resource Recovery Centres at Mariri, Takaka and Collingwood
- Nelson City Council Transfer Station Tahunanui
- Wholesale Landscapes Stoke
Charges apply to all centres. Flax leaves, toitoi, bamboo or palm leaves are ONLY accepted at Wholesale Landscapes.
Can Plan provides skips for green and organic food waste. Bingo Skip Hire, Motueka Bin Hire and Scott’s HIR-A-BIN, Motueka will provide bins and skips and, if they contain green waste only, they will deposit them to the green waste disposal areas of the Resource Recovery Centres.
Contact Details
Resource Recovery Centres (RRCs)
- Mariri - Robinson Road, Ph (03) 526 7896
- Takaka - Scotts Road, Ph (03) 525 8857
- Collingwood - Bainham-Collingwood Road, Ph 021 543 903
- Nelson City Council Transfer Station, Vivian Place, Ph (03) 548 5760
- Bingo Skip Hire, Motueka, Ph (03) 528 0000
- Can Plan, Stoke, Ph (03) 547 0642
- Greenwaste to Zero, 18 Cargill Place (off Beach Rd), Richmond, Ph (03) 544 8857
- Motueka Bin Hire, Motueka, Ph (03) 528 9346
- Scott’s HIR-A-BIN, Motueka, Ph (03) 528 8727
- Wholesale Landscapes, Stoke, Ph (03) 547 5300
